The Waterfront episode 5 recap: The Buckley family's body count rises again!

As we discovered last episode on The Waterfront—the new Netflix thriller centered on a wealthy but very dysfunctional North Carolina family desperate to protect their fishing business legacy—the dangerous drug supplier Grady turned out to not be what we expected. (For one, he's Topher Grace.) And he's seemingly everywhere, popping up at the Buckleys' place of business to any everyone and, you know, threaten death and devastation.

Elsewhere, Marcus Sanchez (Gerardo Celasco)—the DEA agent and secret paramour of Bree Buckley (Melissa Benoist)—discovers a key piece of evidence connecting his girlfriend's parents Harlan (Holt McCallany) and Belle (Maria Bello) at the scene of Sheriff Porter's (Michael Gaston) death, which majorly complicates his romantic relationship.

And yet another person gets added to the Buckley family's body count as they try to save themselves from financial ruin and legal consequences. Here's everything that went down in The Waterfront episode 5.

Caught on camera

Cane (Jake Weary) is already worrying about how many drug runs Grady wants him and Harlan to be doing, given that the DEA is still very much poking around Havenport looking for evidence against them. So he's especially not excited to hear news that, while Marcus was investigating Porter's garage, he caught sight of a trail camera, with footage of Harlan and Belle arriving at the sheriff's house and tossing unknown items into their trunk.

Due to his personal relationship with Bree, Marcus gives Harlan a courtesy head's up that he will be giving the camera footage to the DA the next day—unless Harlan can offer up the name of his main supplier instead. There's no weapon, all Sanchez can do is put them at the scene, Belle reasons, but Harlan points out that they can't give up Grady because it'll all come back to them anyway.

Bree, of course, is not happy with Marcus giving her father an ultimatum, but he tells her if she won't cooperate, the best thing to do is get out of his way because he's not stopping with the investigation. She promises Cane that she'll fix things, but her brother calls bull**** on that: "This is on you," he tells her.

Band of brothers

And that's not the only sibling drama we've got going on—with support from Belle and Harlan, Shawn (Rafael L. Silva) comes clean about why he can to Havenport and who he really is to his half-siblings Cane and Bree.

And while Bree thinks her parents are just happy to have yet another Buckley kid to mess up (as well as being grossed out that she hit on her half-brother), Cane is suspicious if Shawn's story is true or not. For all Shawn knows, the family has tons of money and strong social standing—is his supposed bro after a piece of that?

Later on, Shawn waits up at the fish house for Cane to smooth things out between them and answer any questions Cane might have. He came to Havenport simply to find family, he says, but Cane promises him: "Whatever's here, you don't want it."

Cop an attitude

As mentioned, Grady makes a few unannounced cameos to the Buckleys' businesses this episode, including meeting Harlan's grandson Diller (Brady Hepner) at the marina, which leads to a full-blown tour of the fishery and restaurant. "I showed you mine, now you show me yours," he later tells Harlan about his visit. However, Diller aside, none of the Buckleys are happy to see the supplier on their property: "Discretion is a key ingredient to what we do," Harlan warns.

They're saved by the phone, though, when Grady gets word that one of the truckloads from his farm has been pulled over by Sheriff Drew (Andrew Call). Grady takes his leave, but not before making Harlan come with him. When they get to the farmland, they find the truck and Grady's men as well as a battered and bloodied sheriff handcuffed to the police car.

Harlan tries to calm Drew, saying he wants to talk with him alone. For his part, the sheriff is horrified that Harlan is involved in all of this, but the Buckley patriarch reminds him that the only reason he has that sheriff's badge is because of Harlan's doing. Drew is upset that he doesn't have a choice in being a part of Harlan's shady dealing, but when Grady starts wondering if it'll be cleaner just killing him, he agrees to look the other way to Harlan and Grady's operation.

A dose of tough love

Bree has been mourning Marcus's investigation into her parents' business, with Diller catching his mom sobbing in the employees' lounge at one point: "Your mom ruins everything she touches, she always has, and this time she managed to do it sober," she cries.

But, as she told Cane, Bree manages to fix things—the Buckley way. Marcus returns to the hotel to find a boozed-up Bree breaking her sobriety: "My true form," she proclaims. She picked up some drugs from a dealer, too, which Marcus—a recovering heroin addict—immediately clocks. He tells her that they could leave Havenport together, that he won't let her get ruined by the fallout of her family's actions. As she cries, they get intimate.

Down at the docks, Harlan, Cane and Grady are discussing the latest run, which Harlan isn't comfortable doing with a storm coming in. Things get prickly between them, with Grady declaring that Harlan needs to solve the DEA problem ASAP. So Harlan sets out to do just that, grabbing his gun and heading to the motel that Sheriff Drew told him Marcus was staying at.

A horrified Cane follows him and when he gets there, he finds Marcus in the bed naked and dead, seemingly from an overdose. Harland found him there that way, he swears. He wants to find the camera footage, but Cane says they have to get out of there immediately—he knows his sister is involved, he just doesn't know where she is.

Taking off in the rain, he finds Bree strung out on the side of the road, alongside a bag with Porter's trail camera from Marcus's room. "I killed him," she proclaims, as a shocked Cane carries her home.